Clara is 5 months old!!

August 9th was a big day in the Henderson house. It was my last day of work (Woohoo!!!), Clara's last day with Mrs. Kristi, and Clara's 5 month birthday! Tomorrow the first thing on my to do list is to take some 5 month pictures of Clara but for now here is what Clara was up to the past month.

My favorite moments: I love your smile and your giggle. I love when you grin like crazy when your dad comes home from work. I love reading books to you and am amazed at home interested you are in them and how long they hold your attention. I love how happy you are first thing in the morning and how you grin like crazy when we go in to get you out of your crib. I love the few times when you will still snuggle up against my neck. This doesn't happen often because you think your a big girl now and want to be sitting or standing so you can see everything.

Clara quirks: This month you figured out how to blow spit bubbles and its your favorite thing ever! Your face is constantly drenched in slobber. Its adorable! We are seeing more of your personality and you have learned how to get what you want a bit more. We hear the fake cry when you want to get out of the exersaucer, swing, off the floor, etc. It cuts off the second we pick you up. You are in love with the dogs and cat. You love to watch them and pet them! They are all a little nervous about the little human who makes weird noises and reaches to touch them. That is probably because you have developed quite the grasp and have definitely come away with a handful of hair a few times.

Nap/Sleep: This has been a crazy month for sleeping. We went through some sort of not feeling good/problem self soothing/reaction to shots/ears stopped up issue. Pick whichever problem you think because we have no clue. Between the three doctor visits thats the list of possibilities. For a solid week you were only sleeping in 30 minute stretches ALL NIGHT LONG! Praise the Lord for his grace in sorting that out because we are glad that is over!! You also had a few nights where you didn't want us to put you to bed. You were clearly very tired but would cry when we put you down. You had never done this before, always doing great when it was bedtime. After a few nights of that we decided to tough love it out and did the 5-10 method. Its suppose to be 5-10-15 but I couldn't bear to let you cry for 15 minutes without checking on you. We layed you down and let you cry 5 minutes then went to check on you, putting your paci back in and soothing you without picking you up. The next interval we would wait 10 minutes, then every 10 minutes after that. The first night you cried for 45 minutes. The night after that you cried for 20 minutes and the night after that for 5 minutes. Now you are back to not crying at all when we put you to bed unless you have gotten overly tired. About a week after all of that you started having random nights of sleeping all night!! Praise God!! The first time you did it I woke up scared to death that something terrible/unthinkable had happened. I ran in to check on you and you were snoozing away. The second night you slept through the night your dad did the exact same thing! All in all I think you have slept through the night maybe 6 times this month. I wish it was a little more often but I'll take whatever I can get. Your naps this month have been awesome!! We started doing some tough love when grandma King was visiting and I think that helped a lot. We tried to set up a more structured nap time each day and when the time came we swaddled you up and put you down. Sometimes you would cry for a few minutes but never for terribly long. Ever since then your naps have been great. On a really good day we get two 2 hour naps and one 45 minute nap. Most days its more like two 1.5 hour naps and a cat nap or two in the car.  You are so much more pleasant in the evenings when you have napped well so we are super greatful for the improvement in your napping. Yesterday we moved you from the swaddle to the sleep sack. Last night was rough and I must confess I gave in and swaddled you at 2AM but today you have napped great in your sleep sack and figured out that you can roll over and sleep on your tummy when you aren't swaddled. I hope that means you sleep better tonight!

Eating: You are still a great nurser which we are very grateful for. Your spitting up has finally started to improve although you still have your moments. Most days I'm able to keep you in the same outfit all day which is amazing. You eat every 3- 3.5 hours and you definitely let me know when you are hungry.

Mobility: You still love to roll over from your back to your stomach. I know you can roll over the other direction because you have done it a couple of times when I wasn't in the room but most of the time you just cry for me to flip you back over. You can now spin 360 degrees on your play mat as you reach for toys and play but no forward motion.

We are so in love with you Clara! Can't wait to see what the next month has in store!